The Language of Cat by Rachel Rooney, a previous children’s poetry award winner, is ‘like a pick ’n’ mix containing just one of each of your favourite sweets - each poem is delicious’.
Photograph: PR

Here are my top 10 new poetry books that every child must read. These are books that will both delight and challenge the very young child and the older (cooler) kid. I’ve split the list into two sets of five. The first five are poetry books suitable for the very young. These are books to be pored over at bedtime, read and re-read, or indeed performed and performed again.

The second group of five are contemporary poetry books for older children - books that get children thinking, questioning, laughing and speaking poems out loud. These are the books I wish were around when I was young, these are books every child should grow up with.

Sample delights from the CLPE poetry award 2015 shortlist

Nursery rhymes from all over the world!!! ALL OVER THE WORLD. What more do you want! Here you’ll find glimpses of strange little tales about love and tapioca and whales! The nursery rhymes are written in English and in their native tongue side by side - trying to decipher the foreign words with reference to the English becomes a game in itself. The mixed media artwork by Mique Moriuchi works really well with a collection which in itself is a montage of tales, stories and songs in both time and location. One that can be read again and again at bedtime.

With a background in performance poetry this collection had to be on the list. It’s not purely for the very young, but there are many in here that they will enjoy. This is a book that a child can grow with. It’s one that celebrates poetry as a medium to be performed, something that I fear often gets overlooked. This is a collection that has been expertly chosen by Julia Donaldson with poems that trip easily off the tongue, poems with rhythms and rhymes and alliterative utterances and beautifully effective repetitions. There are poems perfect for a parent to read out loud with a child, such as Tony Mitton’s ‘Voices of Water’, and many poems perfect for the classroom conjuring up conversations and characters such, as Harold Monro’s fantastic ‘Overheard on a Saltmarsh’. Clare Melinsky’s bold lino cuts are beautiful yet allow the poems plenty of space to breathe.

A gorgeous collection to get little ones thinking about the world and their place in it - there are many deceptively simple poems that take on big issues like deforestation and extinction. I can imagine many young and hungry minds asking many questions at bedtime as a result of these poems. Piet Grobler’s illustrations are great fun and the large format makes this a nice alternative to a picture book.

4.A Great Big Cuddle - Poems for the Very YoungbyMichael Rosen. Illustrated by Chris Riddell(Walker)

Michael Rosen in collaboration with our new children’s laureate, Chris Riddell. This is a book of broad strokes, simple, fun and brilliant and very big - I’m tempted to keep my copy on the coffee table, it’s definitely one you want to keep close by just to peruse and smile at the “Wiggly Wiggly” pigs who get all “giggly giggle” or to say “hello” to the multicoloured monkeys with names like Dolly, Solly and Molly! There’s a lot of space in this book with Riddell’s engaging illustrations on solid colour backgrounds sometimes accompanied with words, sometimes just facing equally spaced words on an opposite page. I predict that many parents are going to know this book by heart very quickly.

5.Under the Spell of the Moon. Art for Children from the World’s Great Illustrators. Edited by Patricia Aldana. Translated by Stan Dragland(Frances Lincoln)

Games, riddles and poems from around the world again with text in both English and the native language of the text’s source. This book came about as a result of asking picture book illustrators from around the world to choose their favourite poem, riddle or game from their childhood. The result is like a mobile art gallery punctuated with text that reminds us of what great fun and enjoyment there is to be had from words - an enjoyment which can at times be sucked away when we start labelling text as poetry or narratives. Illustrators choose their favourites and that warm tingle of happy reminiscing permeates through the entire book.

These next five are for older kids - the one who is hungry for new ideas and challenges.

6.Falling Out of the Sky. Poems about Myths and Monsters. Edited by Rachel PierceyandEmma Wright(The Emma Press)

This is a brilliant and brave first foray into children’s anthologies by this impressively productive and relatively young press. The book (aimed at 9+) features a range of poems and even a few prose pieces inspired by myths and monsters that will get young people familiar with the great iconic myths such as Icarus and Pandora’s Box as well as introduce them to some less well known delights like Ginny Green Teeth and Terrainiac the Rain God! Here we have an exciting collection by a young, vibrant company that is not afraid to challenge as well as delight. The poems in this book invite young people and adults alike to think about and question poetry and at times inspire them to find out more about Dog-Bone gods and Celtic cauldrons. I particularly like the little annotated notes that accompany some of the poems inviting the reader to skip back or forward through the book to discover another poem connected to the myth or monster they have just read about. In a sense this makes the book feel digital as you flick back and forth, as one does when surfing the internet, finding a poem on The Minotaur near the start of the book and then being directed to a poem about Daedalus towards the end. One of my favourites from this collection is ‘Love Song for a Minotaur’ by Abigail Parry “I don’t know how to work the string/that rigged a bloodknot in your heart.”

I lost count of the number of times I laughed out loud (lol’d) reading this brilliant, witty, funny and, at times, daring collection. The unstoppable pair make a delightful combination with Michael Rosen’s spot on observations of childhood moments that we can all relate to such as the heart breaking poem ‘One Day When I Was Young’ which perfectly sums up the frustration a child can feel with the simple repeated line “I didn’t laugh”. Then you have McGough’s nerve with poems like ‘The Totally Inoffensive Children’s Poem’ which reminds us that art, poetry needs to incite and stir and make us think and that poetry is at its best when it questions. Korky Paul’s illustrations are so detailed and full of character, this is one of those gems that can appeal to many ages and grow with the child.

8. Give The Ball To The Poet. A New Anthology of Caribbean Poetry. Edited by Georgie Horrell, Aisha Spencer and Morag Styles. Illustrated by Jane Ray(Commonwealth Education Trust)

A fantastic collection aimed at 11-16 year olds with themes covering sport, nature and family. There’s a real mix of fun and in-depth reflection in this book with poems about the slave trade, the joy of mangoes and memories of grandparents. The lyricism of some of the poems leaps off the page. As you read you find yourself rolling the words around in your mouth. This collection is also a wonderful introduction to some of the greats in poetry - Benjamin Zephaniah, John Agard, Grace Nichols, Valerie Bloom to name but a few. Jane Ray’s illustrations delve seamlessly from the beautifully everyday to the metaphorical in sumptuous colour pictures, making it as much a visual delight as a poetic one.

9. Let in the Stars. New Poetry for Children. Edited by Mandy Coe. Illustrated by The Manchester School of Art(The Manchester Writing School at Manchester Metropolitan University)

“We were looking for poems that would do more than simply give what most young readers know they like already… We looked for poems that said No, we don’t think that you are the average child, the average nine-year-old or the average boy or girl.”

The blurb on the back by Philip Gross beautifully sums up this collection - these are poems that refuse to patronise the young - there are also lots of poems in this collection that play with form and narrative such as Rob Mooney’s ‘Dear Aunt Suzette’ - a poem of four limericks or Carole Bromley’s ‘Goldilocks’ that reads a bit like an errant child skiving off school and sneaking into a neighbour’s empty house.

Top poetry writing tips: Rachel Rooney

I never knew a poetry book could be a page turner in the same way as the best novels but The Language of Cat is just that! While reading it it is impossible not to be carried by the excitement of what new insight the next poem will throw up. This collection is like a pick ’n’ mix containing just one of each of your favourite sweets - each poem is delicious and each poem is new and fresh in idea and scope and beauty.